Want entertaining and influential ads? That takes more than just tech | M&M Global

Want entertaining and influential ads? That takes more than just tech

Technology can only take advertisers so far – the real impact must be delivered by good old-fashioned creativity, writes Graeme Lynch, director of business development EMEA at TubeMogul.

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What are the ads we remember? The ones that truly stick in our brains? Chances are they are the most creative ones. The ones that made us laugh – or think – or cry.

The ones that tapped an emotion and stuck there. The ones that made us want to watch. And that’s the point. Successful advertising is so good, it knows us – and makes us want to look. And share. It makes a difference.

When measuring viewability, we often look at the negative. We blame the technology for the reason that viewability rates are not always 100%. It’s the fault of ad blockers. We point the fingers at small player sizes and autoplay formats that don’t engage. And – yes – these are all very important. We know this because we use the benefits of the single platform to measure and improve viewability rates. We can constantly monitor and adjust how well an ad is doing.

But all of these measurements ignore the one thing that makes us remember great advertising: creativity.

The delivery of an ad is important. Ad technology ensures that ads are bought on the right sites for the right audiences at the right time. However, getting the ad there is only half the battle – if the ad is bad, people still won’t want to watch it.

They may mute it on a different screen until such time as they know they can return to the content they really want to view. They may rush past it on a page, giving it just enough time to register as a viewable ad according to the varying measurements offered by the publisher, but engaging with it only on the most minimal basis.

What advertisers really desire is an ad watched until the end by a consumer who is influenced by it. And that takes more than just tech.

Tech limits creativity?

Lately, there have been many attacks on ad tech by those who say it limits creativity. I argue that programmatic can actually lead to a creative renaissance.

It’s like the art world. All of us have different tastes and passions. Some of us love the Impressionists; others like the works from the Old Masters. Still others of us are fans of Post-Modernism. But each of these genres has masterpieces that we all remember. Artists know that their work will not appeal to everyone – but when it does connect, feelings and desires are truly unleashed.

The same goes with advertising. You can’t make everyone laugh or cry about your ad, but you can guarantee it will be wildly loved when you do – and that means picking a market and tailoring the ad to hit the bullseye with it.

“You can’t make everyone laugh or cry about your ad, but you can guarantee it will be wildly loved when you do”

Programmatic advertising provides the data to tailor the ad, gives insight on what that market feels strongly about and then allows you to design your ad buy to ensure that they are the ones seeing the finished product.

While brand marketing, particularly on television, used to be seen as a large hammer for a small nail, giving brands access to as wide mass of consumers as possible, the volume of advertising seen by consumers today on the range of screens they use means that we have to be more targeted than ever before.

And that doesn’t mean we have to stick with the ‘large hammer’ theory. In fact, the range of tools consumers have to avoid ads means we have to be even more innovative.

When I choose my content, I choose it because I want to watch it. Great online video should be seamless with this content – and only if the ad is creative will it succeed. It’s time for creative to embrace the targeting to produce new masterpieces. It’s time for new Picassos to emerge that combine programmatic and creative power in our new brand-marketing world.

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